Forum - Is Cold Calling On The Decline? Does It Even Work?

Hi,

I agree with most things everyone is saying out there. I make telephone calls for a living and I also sell Voice Broadcasting, along with Fax and Email Broadcasting. I also advise clients on which Call Centres to use for Cold-Calling. So as someone on the inside of the industry, I can tell you that B2C (calling consumers) is on the decline at present using "real people" to make the calls.

I learned how to make cold calls B2C 25 years ago to pay my way through University. In those days, it was novel and a bit of fun for someone to receive a telephone call in the evening. Before the Internet, multitasking and when Jobs were for Life, people had more time to talk to someone on the telephone. 25 years on, everyone is very busy trying to earn a living, find a new job, look after the kids, and so on. It's become more of an intrusion these days. Another key factor is globalisation and the desire to cut down the costs of making calls.

For an offshore caller in the Far East, making calls to people about a new mobile telephone earns them a lot of money, and people are literally fighting over jobs at call centres. The problem is that their version of English is not the same as ours and Call Centres can often pressurise these people to the hilt to push consumers over the edge. Many of my clients have opted to go down the Recorded Voice route. The problem here is that some greedy clients don't set up the "Don't call me again" system properly and it's giving the industry a bad name again. The whole point of voice recording is to cut down the cost and save the verbal abuse for either party. Unfortunately in business, good manners are on the decline and when I give advice on such matters some people look at me blankly.

If anyone is serious about Telemarketing - have a look at my blog - www.freelancetelemarketing.org.uk - where you'll find the lowdown of what does and what doesn't work when using telemarketing, lead generation and sales opportunity creation.

Many thanks for reading

I'm still getting cold calls, but the type has changed. I keep getting calls about a car accident I had almost 3 years ago, begging me to let them pursue a claim on my behalf.

I used to get calls from a certain broadband company offering their wares. Now I and my clients are getting calls from SEO and PPC companies.

I know that cold calls work because I know people who've been successfully sold to this way. Cold calls are a successful sales strategy, but many of the companies using this method are only interested in the initial sale. They don't offer value for money or real competence in what they do. The simplest solutions are not identified or are ignored in favour of their one size fits all systems and processes. Their aim is simply to make money and then sometimes run. They're just sales operations, they don't deliver what they promise.

The clients are either unaware of the marginal or dubious value for money and continue paying for crap, whilst others realise they're getting a bad deal and either don't renew or go elsewhere on contract expiry. But they still pay.

Cold calling can be an excellent sales tool provided salespeople are allowed to do their job properly, selling a quality product or service. It should be the start of the company building a great ongoing relationship with its customers. If you have this objective in mind with a cold-call and business strategy, it can work wonders for your company.

I don't know if we're lumping in cold calling on the phone with people who just turn up, but certainly at home, nothing is more annoying than people turning up and attempting to sell me cheaper gas/electricity, when I clearly have no other information on hand to make a comparison.

I came very close to swearing at a guy the other day who just would not take no for an answer, no matter how many times I told him "I'm not interested", and "I'm not going to sign up". He was offering an "up to" £200 cashback, which might have been an attractive offer, but he wouldn't leave any paperwork without me effectively signing up, so of course I'm not interested.
I do feel moderately sorry for them as it'll be commission based, but on the other hand they have chosen the profession.

The worst one on the phone I've had was Barclays. They make you phone up to activate a new credit card, then spend 10minutes trying to sell you additional services.
I told the woman several times politely I didn't want to waste her time because I wouldn't be buying any, but she persisted to the point where even if I had wanted the product, I wouldn't have bought from her because she was annoying me.

Certainly I'm not getting the calls for kitchens and insurance I used to get. And a company that persisted calling me to ask about a claim for personal injury they said they had proof of (no such accident ever took place) have finally stopped.